Entry Level Watches

Though on the more expensive end for Chinese watches you can find on Aliexpress, the San Martin BB homage is every bit deserving of its ~$300 price tag.  This 39mm solid stainless steel watch sits a little larger on the wrist due to its nearly 49mm lug to lug length but still wears okay on small wrists like mine. Any larger and it wouldn't work. Though Chinese watches have a negative connotation for the uninitiated, some brands (Sea-Gull, Sugess) do create affordable but well-made pieces. San Martin is among these brands. Beneath the sapphire crystal and applied lumed indices, a trusty automatic Seiko NH34 powers the time, date, and GMT functions.  Speaking of GMT, the SN0109's aluminum bezel both clicks nicely and looks great. While I was out and about someone even mistook this for the Tudor it's an homage to. The screw down crown helps this watch achieve 100 meters of water resistance, though sometimes it does look like there's more room to screw in and I'd be hes...

What better way to start the Entry Level Watches blog than with my first watch? The Seiko SRK050 was my gateway into watches. Its simple dial, with small seconds and roman numerals provided an elegance I was looking for to match business casual days without being too flashy. At 39mm it sits okay on my relatively small wrists and its sapphire crystal gives me piece of mind against potential scratches. While I don't take this watch into pools, it is water resistant up to 165 feet (5 bar, 50 meters). Seiko uses the 6G28 quartz movement in this piece, which they claim is accurate to ± 20 seconds per month with a battery life of 3 years.  It's quite thin and lightweight; easy to forget you're wearing it. However, the cow leather strap did take some time to break in as it was extremely stiff out of the box.  Seiko lists this watch along with its various-colored brothers and sisters at about $250 but it can be often found for ~$120 on grey marketplaces. Its grey market price cer...